Page 59 - Hindsight Issue 26 April 2020

HeRItAge
The Red Wheel, awarded to Roade Cutting in 2018 by the Transport Trust, recognising it as a national Transport Heritage Site
and aggravating the local gentry. Drunkenness, petty crime and poaching were rife and special Constables were engaged in an attempt to maintain order.
serious injury and death were an ever-present risk to the men engaged on the excavations, the Northampton Mercury reporting numerous tragic instances throughout.
the coming of the railways was to determine the future social and economic growth of the community, and the following prophecy was included within a Handbook for Travellers along the London and Birmingham Railway:
‘About this spot we leave the county of Buckinghamshire and enter that of Northampton and, passing rapidly over a lofty embankment of about a mile in length, which divides the village of Ashton in two parts, shortly arrive at the Roade Station. The little village of Roade, which lies close to the railway, has suddenly been invested with all the bustle and activity of a town; and will, no doubt, enjoy increasing consequence and prosperity from its locality to this great line of communication. This is one of numerous instances which could be adducted, of the great benefit which a Railway confers upon towns near which it is formed; and amidst the changes which are thus originated, many places heretofore have been comparatively unknown will become towns of considerable extent.’
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